Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Pay it forward

To whoever you are, nice woman, who stopped and gave me and my sopping wet children a ride when we were caught in a freak rainstorm, I sincerely thank you.  And I will write it down to remember someone in Miami was courteous to me one time while we lived here.  :)   (Seriously, this is a much more common scenario!)

I know this scenario of me getting caught in a freak storm with all my children out at the park is not an unfamiliar Miami story.  This time we were all out, along with everyone else in the neighborhood for Memorial Day at the park.  Ryan was about 30 feet away from me and I hear him yell to me, "GO! FAST!!"  I still didn't know what he was talking about until I looked down on the ground right in front of me and saw the splatter of a raindrop the size of a tennis ball.  Good grief, these things sure come out of nowhere.  I had the baby in my arms and tried to cover him with a blanket to shelter him, but with the sudden wind and all there wasn't much success to that.  Ashton was screaming so much Ryan shoved him in the infant seat in the stroller and I tried to herd the other two kids along, but with all the running and chaos, shoes kept falling off, bodies were lagging behind, and I wasn't sure whether we should try to make it all the way home, try to go run into a closer building, just huddle together and wait for a minute or what.  So there I stood at the edge of the road getting soaked, looking around trying to figure out exactly what I should do.

Then along came the nice woman who rolled down her window and yelled at us to get in. I protested that we would get her car all wet, but her nice passenger friend got out and even took sopping wet Phoenix onto her seat with her in the front while Cash and the baby and I climbed in the back. Ryan and the covered large child in small seat just ran through the rain.

Since thanks wasn't quite enough, all I could think to wish her was that someone would do the same for her someday.  Just like I always put a quarter in the meter for a stranger when I see their time has expired.  You always hope it will come back around.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can EXACTLY picture the whole scene! Bless her heart!!

Love, Grammy

Mike & Britt said...

WooHoo for a nice person in Miami! I would have been scared to get in her car for fear she wouldn't take me home...she's kidnap the whole family (: See what Miami has done to us!?

Melanie said...

A glimmer of humanity in Miami!

Sarah said...

I can picture the whole thing. Bless your hearts.. and that kind woman's!! p.s. your baby is seriously SOooo beautiful!!! I can't get enough pictures of that little cherub :)

Susan said...

Wonderful story. There are good people out there. I'm glad one of them found you!

Laurie said...

Haley and I were caught in a freak storm standing on a corner waiting for the light to change...someone through us an umbrella and drove off because of the traffic. Our hearts were so warmed even though our bodies were freezing. It comes around and goes around. Glad it happened to you!